Mi 8 Explorer Edition Comprehensive Review: Flagship of the Year!
by mitch002
First of all let me greet Xiaomi a Happy 8th Anniversary, its been an awesome 8 years for the company, so many ups and so many downs along the road, but one thing for sure is that they keep the spirit up, like they say "always believe something good is about to happen". This positive vibe keeps the company striving for excellence, and I applaud CEO Lei Jun and his team for a job well done.
There are so many events for Xiaomi this year alone and being able to enter Hong Kong Stock Exchange is another milestone for the company and they ended their 8th year celebration with a wow in everyone's face. Presenting the worlds first transparent back case phone, the Mi 8 Explorer Edition. Xiaomi has year achieved something out of the extraordinary, first it was the Mi5 ceramic back case, then the Mi MIX full screen display and now the transparent back in Mi8 is creating so much noise across Mainland China.
Tech Specs of Mi 8 Explorer Edition:
Official Trailer:
Design:
I honestly liked the Mi 6 Pro Ceramic design from last year since it has been my daily driver for the longest time and I cant believe Im about to let it go, but the Mi 8 Explorer Edition is a significant step up on every angle. Whereas the Mi 6 Pro sported a 5.15 inch screen together with a Ceramic Back Cover, the Mi 8 Explorer Edition has bumped it up significantly to 6.21 inches plus the Transparent Glass Back Cover that no one has ever seen before. One common attribute of the Mi 6 Pro and Mi 8 Explorer Edition is that its slippery when you let it lie flat on the table, it will slip on its own a bit, not as much as the Mi 5 Ceramic tho. The design especially the notch is copied from the Iphone X as well as the protruded rear dual camera as well. The screen to phone ratio is even better than the Mi MIX 2S at 83.8%. This year, Xiaomi has let go of the Ceramic Edition that I personally look forward yearly since Mi 5, and they didn't disappoint with the Explorer Edition's transparent glass back cover.
Unboxing
Bigger Box Compared to the Mi8
There is an acrylic transparent case inside which represent transparency of the Mi 8 EE
First Glance at the Mi 8 EE and Its Freakin Awesome!!
Closer Look!
Complete Set!
Back Case, Mi 8 EE, Red USB C Cable, QC 3 Charger, Manual, Sim Ejector Pin, USB C to 3.5mm Audio Jack
Welcoming Note from CEO Lei Jun
Video Unboxing
Mi 8 EE has the same front as the Mi 8
We have the USB C, Loudspeaker and Mic In at the bottom
On the right side we have a Red Powerbutton, Volume Rocker
Noise Cancellation Mic on Top
Sim Card Ejector Tray on the left side which supports 2 Nano Sim
In Screen Finger Print Scanner for the first time in Xiaomi Units
Well the Notch
We love to keep looking at the back
Dont you?
After playing for a while with this phone, I can say the feel is a lot more premium than the Mi8 but the availablity of this phone is pretty scarce as we heard Xiaomi plans to manufacturer only 20,000 units for this special edition. If there is any truth to that, then expect prices to be soaring up the roof.
Display and Audio
We were expecting a lot from the display side as we discovered that its sporting a Samsung AMOLED, the first in any Xiaomi phone, the nearest one was the Mi Note 2 sporting a OLED back then. The Full HD display did blew me away with its awesome rendering of photos and videos, and probably one thing that is not good with AMOLED is the burn in problems like those on the Samsung Galaxy Flagship Series that we have heard about. We watched several movies and I can say its pretty different from Mi MIX 2S as it displayed it better. The sound was excellent, we have no problem kicking the sound to the max inside a small room and it can fill the room with sound. Bluetooth connectivity of headset is also no problem on this unit. I can say that the loudspeaker is pretty loud on this one as I am a frequent use of voice message in WeChat and this one definitely I have to volume down just to put it in a non scandalous way of listening to voice messages.
Here are the supported audio and video file format by the Mi 8 Explorer Edition
Support H.265/HEVC (Main profile), H.264 (Baseline/Main/High profile), MPEG4 (Simple profile/ASP) and other video formats, Support PCM, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+, MP3, AMR-NB and WB , FLAC, APE, WAV and other audio formats
Support HDR10 when playing HDR10 video content
Playing games is such a breeze on a flagship like this one, we played all the heavy games on this unit and it didnt even break a sweat. NBA 2k18 and PUBG was played on this phone on High Settings and its just as easy as a pie.
Mi 8 Explorer Edition vs Mi 6 PRO Ceramic
Now its time to pit the Flagship today and the Flagship of yesteryear together in this epic comparison showdown.
Ceramic vs Transparent Glass
Snapdragon 845
One of the few devices that sports the latest chipset from Qualcomm is Mi 8 Explorer Edition, the Snapdragon 845 SoC has 8 cores and can run up to 2.8Ghz of computing speed. Now of course powered together with the powerful Adreno 630, and of course a generous serving of 8GB RAM, it will give you the best experience in gaming up to date. Not mentioning that it can run even the most graphics hungry games like PUBG and NBA 2K18. This latest flagship by Qualcomm first appeared in MI MIX 2S for Xiaomi, then followed by Black Shark and now its running inside the heart of Mi 8 Explorer Edition. We ran several stress test on this unit and we did not see any lags nor any shortcomings on the opening of any apps in the Mi 8 Explorer Edition, multitasking was a breeze. This SoC is supports the 64-bit architecture which means it can compute at a very fast phase. So good graphics, good multitasking plus fast processing makes Snapdragon 845 probably one of the most premium SoC after the 835 that was present in last year's flagship.
The Mi 8 Explorer Edition scored a very good 288,270 as opposed to the Mi8's 271,770 Points on AnTuTu out of the box, this test is done right out of the box and we still have yet to achieve the advertised 301k points, this probably is tested under MIUI 10 while its still MIUI 9.6 out of the box.
Connectivity
The Mi 8 Explorer Edition supports 17 different LTE bands (2 more than the one in Mi
and good news, due to persistent public demand, B20 is now present in this flagship. It's pretty easy to switch to LTE network inside the settings, and it also supports Dual 4G mode as well so both of my signals are running on 4G, I can even use mobile data during volte calls on the 2nd sim. You can freely choose which sim you want to use your LTE data, since this is a Dual LTE, Dual standby smartphone. This unit also has the 4G+ equipped, and also supports multiple carrier aggregation technology (should your network provider have this feature), you can take advantage of it. Wireless connectivity via Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac is also smooth and it also supports Wi-Fi Direct. Wireless screen mirroring is also available via the Miracast protocol, tethering data is also working perfectly. Bluetooth 5.0,GPS, and GLONASS are all present, NFC (Near Field Communication) is also present to support Mi Pay, Android Pay and it enables you to send data to a fellow NFC user with just tapping your phones together. Transferring data from older phones using Mi Mover was also a breeze as well.
GSM B2 / B3 / B5 / B8
CDMA 1X / EVDO BC0
WCDMA B1 / B2 / B4 / B5 / B8
TD-SCDMA B34 / B39
TD-LTE B34 / B38 / B39 / B40 / B41 (120MHz)
FDD-LTE B1 / B2 / B3 / B4 / B5 / B7 / B8 / B12 / B17 / B20
LTE B41 4 antenna technology supporting 4x4 MIMO
In Screen Finger Print Scanner, MiMoji and Whats Inside the Back Case
The most exciting part of the Mi 8 EE is that there is the first ever In Screen Finger Print Scanner by Xiaomi and it responded pretty fast on my testing and daily use. The 3D Face ID is also another new feature and it unlocks my screen in an instant, now it pretty much scans up the face in an instant and even in dim light it responded as well, we were surprised it even responded on almost peach black surrounding due to its IR.
One fun feature is the is the Mimoji, which the emoji can animate like you and you can record it for 10 seconds per clip as seen in my initial greeting above using Mi Bunny Emoji.
Many people have been asking if these chips are real or just for design purpose, according to our 60X zoom lens, it happens to tbe the real deal as we zoomed thru the soulder of the IC.
White LED Notification
Wireless Charging?
Have tested the Mi 8 Explorer Edition to different wireless Qi chargers including Xiaomi Wireless Charger, there is no success so far, meaning wireless charging is not present on this unit.
Dual Frequency GPS
This is the very first phone in the world sporting this kind of technology, now there are many cases that we are having a difficult time getting proper GPS signal on our phones, Mi 6 was not exempted from this problem especially when passing over a tunnel or even an overpass, GPS connection gets lost. This technology would probably enhance it, as well as accuracy. I have tested it together with my Mi 6, when I loaded my position using Google Maps, the Mi 8 is roughly 2 seconds faster in pinpointing my current location.
Camera:
The Mi 8 Explorer Edition is one of the best camera that Xiaomi has released by far, getting the nod by DXOMark with 105 Points, this puts Mi 8 and Mi 8 Explorer Edition together with the elites like the Samsung Galaxy S9+. While Xiaomi has already unlocked another achievement so far, we can say that this camera performed very well under good lighting, and it has a great improvement on darker places as opposed to the Mi 6. The rear camera are both 12 Megapixels, one being the Sony IMX 363 Sensor and the other being the Samsung S5k3m3. They also incorporated the 4-AXIS OIS in this one so expect good shots in motion photos. The front snapper is a Samsung Sensor S5k3t2 with 20 Megapixel together with a Aux Camera Omnivision OV7251 for face unlocking and it took pretty good selfies and it also sported the bokeh portrait mode. The manual mode has an exposure time of 32S and ISO of 3200. Face Unlocking is also present as well and is very easy to use, they have deployed the infrared to detect face even in dark ambiance. Video is using UHD 4K and its really good, check out our sample below.
For the full article of the DxO Mark Test, check it here: Xiaomi Mi 8 camera review: Challenging the best
Actual Shots
All shots are taken with AI and HDR off for maximum appreciation of the goodness of the camera without the filters.
With a Very Special Guest Ms. Dona Apolinar
selfie
Video Sample UHD
Camera Comparison Mi8EE vs Mi6PRO
Mi 8 Battery and Benchmark:
The Mi 8 Explorer Edition supports the Qualcomm Quick charge 4.0 but inside the box it only includes a QC 3.0 charger, and we tested it took in 5V 3.3 Amperes based on our testing using the supplied charger and cable, there was a moment it kicks to 12V 0.6A as well. We charged the phone from 34% to 100% in 44 minutes as I was able to closely monitored it. We recorded a 10 hour 34 minutes endurance test Mi 8 Explorer Edition 8GB/128GB version under the PC Mark battery stress test. If these statistics are true on a normal daily use, then it's really a good sign for the said smartphone, and based on my daily usage for several days, the battery seems to last me a whole day on normal usage.
Other Benchmarks
Mi 8 Explorer Edition, Flagship Worthy Phone!
As we come to our final conclusion on this awesome flagship, the Mi 8 Explorer did sported a lot of differences from the Mi8, especially the camera that it has passed DxO Mark and its not as saturated as the one rendered on the Mi8. This phone is now ranked with the elite phones, the venture toward AMOLED for me is still a questionable move, tho it rendered great display, but having burn-in problems might be problematic moving forward. The overall finish of the phone is very much elegant well except for the notch (you can hide it in the settings under full display). The Transparent Back Cover is definitely something worth owning if you can be able to snag one from the market due to its rare nature as of press time.
The Mi8 Explorer Edition 8GB/128GB retails for 3699 RMB.
Mi 8 Explorer Edition
by mitch002
First of all let me greet Xiaomi a Happy 8th Anniversary, its been an awesome 8 years for the company, so many ups and so many downs along the road, but one thing for sure is that they keep the spirit up, like they say "always believe something good is about to happen". This positive vibe keeps the company striving for excellence, and I applaud CEO Lei Jun and his team for a job well done.
There are so many events for Xiaomi this year alone and being able to enter Hong Kong Stock Exchange is another milestone for the company and they ended their 8th year celebration with a wow in everyone's face. Presenting the worlds first transparent back case phone, the Mi 8 Explorer Edition. Xiaomi has year achieved something out of the extraordinary, first it was the Mi5 ceramic back case, then the Mi MIX full screen display and now the transparent back in Mi8 is creating so much noise across Mainland China.
Tech Specs of Mi 8 Explorer Edition:
- · Qualcomm SDM845 Snapdragon 845 Octa-core processor (4x2.8GHz Kryo 385 Gold and 4x1.8GHz Kryo 385 Silver)
- · Adreno 630 GPU 710Mhz
- · 8GB of RAM LPDDR4
- · 6.21-inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display, (~83.8% screen-to-body ratio)
- · 1080 x 2240 pixels FHD+ (~402 ppi pixel density), 60,000:1 contrast ratio, 18.7:9 Ratio
- · DCI-P3 color gamut, high color saturation, 430nit
- · Blue, Gold, White, Black
- · 128GB of storage
- · 12 MP, wide angle lens, 4 Axis OIS, f/1.8, 1.4µm Dark Light Enhancement, Phase Detection Autofocus, Dual-LED flash
- 12 MP, telephoto lens, portrait lens, f/2.4, 1.0µm, AI
- · 20 MP front camera, f/2.0, 1.8µm, 3D Beauty, Mirror Function, Portrait Mode, Front HDR
- · In Screen Finger print scanner
- 3D Face Detection Unlocking
- · Dual SIM (nano sim size)
- · 3G, LTE, 4G+ Carrier Aggregation, VoLTE Calls
- · Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, World's First DUAL Band GPS Phone, A-GPS, NFC
- · 3400mAh battery, Quick Charge 4.0 Supported
- · 2x2 MIMO Technology to support MU-MIMO
- · Sensors: Ultrasonic distance sensor, Ambient Light sensor, Gyro, Vibration Motor, Accelerometer, Barometer, Electronic
- Compass, Hall Sensor
- · Android Oreo 8.1, MIUI 9.5
- · USB-C port, UFS 2.1
- · 154.9 mm x 74.8 mm x 7.6 mm
- · 175 Grams
Official Trailer:
Design:
I honestly liked the Mi 6 Pro Ceramic design from last year since it has been my daily driver for the longest time and I cant believe Im about to let it go, but the Mi 8 Explorer Edition is a significant step up on every angle. Whereas the Mi 6 Pro sported a 5.15 inch screen together with a Ceramic Back Cover, the Mi 8 Explorer Edition has bumped it up significantly to 6.21 inches plus the Transparent Glass Back Cover that no one has ever seen before. One common attribute of the Mi 6 Pro and Mi 8 Explorer Edition is that its slippery when you let it lie flat on the table, it will slip on its own a bit, not as much as the Mi 5 Ceramic tho. The design especially the notch is copied from the Iphone X as well as the protruded rear dual camera as well. The screen to phone ratio is even better than the Mi MIX 2S at 83.8%. This year, Xiaomi has let go of the Ceramic Edition that I personally look forward yearly since Mi 5, and they didn't disappoint with the Explorer Edition's transparent glass back cover.
Unboxing
Bigger Box Compared to the Mi8
There is an acrylic transparent case inside which represent transparency of the Mi 8 EE
First Glance at the Mi 8 EE and Its Freakin Awesome!!
Closer Look!
Complete Set!
Back Case, Mi 8 EE, Red USB C Cable, QC 3 Charger, Manual, Sim Ejector Pin, USB C to 3.5mm Audio Jack
Welcoming Note from CEO Lei Jun
Video Unboxing
Mi 8 EE has the same front as the Mi 8
We have the USB C, Loudspeaker and Mic In at the bottom
On the right side we have a Red Powerbutton, Volume Rocker
Noise Cancellation Mic on Top
Sim Card Ejector Tray on the left side which supports 2 Nano Sim
In Screen Finger Print Scanner for the first time in Xiaomi Units
Well the Notch
We love to keep looking at the back
Dont you?
After playing for a while with this phone, I can say the feel is a lot more premium than the Mi8 but the availablity of this phone is pretty scarce as we heard Xiaomi plans to manufacturer only 20,000 units for this special edition. If there is any truth to that, then expect prices to be soaring up the roof.
Display and Audio
We were expecting a lot from the display side as we discovered that its sporting a Samsung AMOLED, the first in any Xiaomi phone, the nearest one was the Mi Note 2 sporting a OLED back then. The Full HD display did blew me away with its awesome rendering of photos and videos, and probably one thing that is not good with AMOLED is the burn in problems like those on the Samsung Galaxy Flagship Series that we have heard about. We watched several movies and I can say its pretty different from Mi MIX 2S as it displayed it better. The sound was excellent, we have no problem kicking the sound to the max inside a small room and it can fill the room with sound. Bluetooth connectivity of headset is also no problem on this unit. I can say that the loudspeaker is pretty loud on this one as I am a frequent use of voice message in WeChat and this one definitely I have to volume down just to put it in a non scandalous way of listening to voice messages.
Here are the supported audio and video file format by the Mi 8 Explorer Edition
- MP4
- M4V
- MKV
- XVID
- WAV
- AAC
- MP3
- AMR
- FLAC
- APE
Support H.265/HEVC (Main profile), H.264 (Baseline/Main/High profile), MPEG4 (Simple profile/ASP) and other video formats, Support PCM, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+, MP3, AMR-NB and WB , FLAC, APE, WAV and other audio formats
Support HDR10 when playing HDR10 video content
Playing games is such a breeze on a flagship like this one, we played all the heavy games on this unit and it didnt even break a sweat. NBA 2k18 and PUBG was played on this phone on High Settings and its just as easy as a pie.
Mi 8 Explorer Edition vs Mi 6 PRO Ceramic
Now its time to pit the Flagship today and the Flagship of yesteryear together in this epic comparison showdown.
Ceramic vs Transparent Glass
Snapdragon 845
One of the few devices that sports the latest chipset from Qualcomm is Mi 8 Explorer Edition, the Snapdragon 845 SoC has 8 cores and can run up to 2.8Ghz of computing speed. Now of course powered together with the powerful Adreno 630, and of course a generous serving of 8GB RAM, it will give you the best experience in gaming up to date. Not mentioning that it can run even the most graphics hungry games like PUBG and NBA 2K18. This latest flagship by Qualcomm first appeared in MI MIX 2S for Xiaomi, then followed by Black Shark and now its running inside the heart of Mi 8 Explorer Edition. We ran several stress test on this unit and we did not see any lags nor any shortcomings on the opening of any apps in the Mi 8 Explorer Edition, multitasking was a breeze. This SoC is supports the 64-bit architecture which means it can compute at a very fast phase. So good graphics, good multitasking plus fast processing makes Snapdragon 845 probably one of the most premium SoC after the 835 that was present in last year's flagship.
The Mi 8 Explorer Edition scored a very good 288,270 as opposed to the Mi8's 271,770 Points on AnTuTu out of the box, this test is done right out of the box and we still have yet to achieve the advertised 301k points, this probably is tested under MIUI 10 while its still MIUI 9.6 out of the box.
Connectivity
The Mi 8 Explorer Edition supports 17 different LTE bands (2 more than the one in Mi
and good news, due to persistent public demand, B20 is now present in this flagship. It's pretty easy to switch to LTE network inside the settings, and it also supports Dual 4G mode as well so both of my signals are running on 4G, I can even use mobile data during volte calls on the 2nd sim. You can freely choose which sim you want to use your LTE data, since this is a Dual LTE, Dual standby smartphone. This unit also has the 4G+ equipped, and also supports multiple carrier aggregation technology (should your network provider have this feature), you can take advantage of it. Wireless connectivity via Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac is also smooth and it also supports Wi-Fi Direct. Wireless screen mirroring is also available via the Miracast protocol, tethering data is also working perfectly. Bluetooth 5.0,GPS, and GLONASS are all present, NFC (Near Field Communication) is also present to support Mi Pay, Android Pay and it enables you to send data to a fellow NFC user with just tapping your phones together. Transferring data from older phones using Mi Mover was also a breeze as well.GSM B2 / B3 / B5 / B8
CDMA 1X / EVDO BC0
WCDMA B1 / B2 / B4 / B5 / B8
TD-SCDMA B34 / B39
TD-LTE B34 / B38 / B39 / B40 / B41 (120MHz)
FDD-LTE B1 / B2 / B3 / B4 / B5 / B7 / B8 / B12 / B17 / B20
LTE B41 4 antenna technology supporting 4x4 MIMO
In Screen Finger Print Scanner, MiMoji and Whats Inside the Back Case
The most exciting part of the Mi 8 EE is that there is the first ever In Screen Finger Print Scanner by Xiaomi and it responded pretty fast on my testing and daily use. The 3D Face ID is also another new feature and it unlocks my screen in an instant, now it pretty much scans up the face in an instant and even in dim light it responded as well, we were surprised it even responded on almost peach black surrounding due to its IR.
One fun feature is the is the Mimoji, which the emoji can animate like you and you can record it for 10 seconds per clip as seen in my initial greeting above using Mi Bunny Emoji.
Many people have been asking if these chips are real or just for design purpose, according to our 60X zoom lens, it happens to tbe the real deal as we zoomed thru the soulder of the IC.
White LED Notification
Wireless Charging?
Have tested the Mi 8 Explorer Edition to different wireless Qi chargers including Xiaomi Wireless Charger, there is no success so far, meaning wireless charging is not present on this unit.
Dual Frequency GPS
This is the very first phone in the world sporting this kind of technology, now there are many cases that we are having a difficult time getting proper GPS signal on our phones, Mi 6 was not exempted from this problem especially when passing over a tunnel or even an overpass, GPS connection gets lost. This technology would probably enhance it, as well as accuracy. I have tested it together with my Mi 6, when I loaded my position using Google Maps, the Mi 8 is roughly 2 seconds faster in pinpointing my current location.
Camera:
The Mi 8 Explorer Edition is one of the best camera that Xiaomi has released by far, getting the nod by DXOMark with 105 Points, this puts Mi 8 and Mi 8 Explorer Edition together with the elites like the Samsung Galaxy S9+. While Xiaomi has already unlocked another achievement so far, we can say that this camera performed very well under good lighting, and it has a great improvement on darker places as opposed to the Mi 6. The rear camera are both 12 Megapixels, one being the Sony IMX 363 Sensor and the other being the Samsung S5k3m3. They also incorporated the 4-AXIS OIS in this one so expect good shots in motion photos. The front snapper is a Samsung Sensor S5k3t2 with 20 Megapixel together with a Aux Camera Omnivision OV7251 for face unlocking and it took pretty good selfies and it also sported the bokeh portrait mode. The manual mode has an exposure time of 32S and ISO of 3200. Face Unlocking is also present as well and is very easy to use, they have deployed the infrared to detect face even in dark ambiance. Video is using UHD 4K and its really good, check out our sample below.
For the full article of the DxO Mark Test, check it here: Xiaomi Mi 8 camera review: Challenging the best
Actual Shots
All shots are taken with AI and HDR off for maximum appreciation of the goodness of the camera without the filters.
With a Very Special Guest Ms. Dona Apolinar
selfie
Video Sample UHD
Camera Comparison Mi8EE vs Mi6PRO
Mi 8 Battery and Benchmark:
The Mi 8 Explorer Edition supports the Qualcomm Quick charge 4.0 but inside the box it only includes a QC 3.0 charger, and we tested it took in 5V 3.3 Amperes based on our testing using the supplied charger and cable, there was a moment it kicks to 12V 0.6A as well. We charged the phone from 34% to 100% in 44 minutes as I was able to closely monitored it. We recorded a 10 hour 34 minutes endurance test Mi 8 Explorer Edition 8GB/128GB version under the PC Mark battery stress test. If these statistics are true on a normal daily use, then it's really a good sign for the said smartphone, and based on my daily usage for several days, the battery seems to last me a whole day on normal usage.
Other Benchmarks
Mi 8 Explorer Edition, Flagship Worthy Phone!
As we come to our final conclusion on this awesome flagship, the Mi 8 Explorer did sported a lot of differences from the Mi8, especially the camera that it has passed DxO Mark and its not as saturated as the one rendered on the Mi8. This phone is now ranked with the elite phones, the venture toward AMOLED for me is still a questionable move, tho it rendered great display, but having burn-in problems might be problematic moving forward. The overall finish of the phone is very much elegant well except for the notch (you can hide it in the settings under full display). The Transparent Back Cover is definitely something worth owning if you can be able to snag one from the market due to its rare nature as of press time.
The Mi8 Explorer Edition 8GB/128GB retails for 3699 RMB.
Mi 8 Explorer Edition
